Dubai Internet City (DIC), member of TECOM Investments, one of the largest ICT clusters in the world, will showcase its unique value to potential Asian partners seeking to expand to the Middle East, at CommunicAsia 2007, to be held in Singapore from Tuesday to Friday.
At Asia’s most comprehensive info-communications event, DIC will highlight the unique business incentives it offers to companies seeking to establish inroads into the Middle East’s rapidly-expanding market for ICT products and services.
Covering the whole spectrum of the ICT industry, CommunicAsia, one of the largest communications events in the Asia Pacific region, offers participants access to multiple markets across Asia, creating a vibrant platform for sellers and buyers of products and solutions. In 2006, the show received a total of 49,557 trade visitors and buyers from more than 89 countries around the world.
Jamal Abdulsalam, Executive Director of DIC, said: “CommunicAsia is an ideal platform for DIC to reach out to Asia-Pacific companies. DIC offers an advanced and purpose-built infrastructure for the global ICT industry along with a host of free-zone benefits. Many global ICT giants have taken advantage of DIC’s unique facilities to launch their Middle East operations.
“DIC is to build and enhance brand awareness among the target audience from the Asia-Pacific market, and increase representation in order to attract new IT companies from players in the growth industry sectors such as hospitality, retail, healthcare, logistics, and telecom,” Abdulsalam said.
The Asia-Pacific market is currently estimated at $276 billion, and this is expected to rise to $431 billion in 2009, making the region with its growth potential one of the most attractive to investors. The Asia-Pacific market is a hub for packaged software, hardware and software for the rapidly emerging and growing segments such as gaming. According to international market research firm IDC, by 2010, software vendors in this region should collectively generate a total of $21.5 billion in revenue.
According to ITU’s Asia Pacific telecommunication indicators 2004 report, the Asia-Pacific market has weathered the meltdown of the telecom market in North America and Western Europe, somewhat better. During 2000-2003, spending on telecommunications equipment and services increased by a compound annual growth rate of seven per cent, compared to two per cent in North America and three per cent in Western Europe. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), much of the growth was due to higher spending on wireless services, which increased 24 per cent from $70 billion to $165 billion.
This increase in spending is certainly consistent with the dramatic rise in mobile cellular subscribers that has characterised the region. The number of mobile subscribers in Asia-Pacific surpassed fixed-line subscribers in early 2002.
Asia-Pacific companies will network with DIC officials, led by Majed Al Suwaidi, Director of Sales at DIC, and learn how the hub could provide them with a strategic and lucrative base for their Middle East operations.
DIC’s parent company TECOM Investments last year opened an office in Shenzhen in China to tap this potential.
The office provides easier access for DIC-based companies to the ICT markets in East Asia, offering new opportunities for partnerships and business development. It also provides Asian companies with the necessary information on DIC and the value-added services it offers.
DIC currently has more than 1,000 establishments within its boundaries, including international and major ICT players such as LexMark, Intel, General Electric (GE), Microsoft, Cisco Systems, IBM, HP, Dell, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, Korea Telecommunications, ZET, Samsung, Singtel (One of Singapore’s telecommunication company), Huwawei (Telecomm hardware systems) and Fujitsu Siemens, making it one of the largest managed clusters of ICT companies in the world.
The number of business partners at the region’s largest ICT hub has grown at an average annual rate of 53 per cent since its launch in 2000.